All That Remains
by 5th Dimension
Summary: Waking up in the middle of a new world can be hard, especially when you know nothing about it. But then our hero finds what's left of someone else's life. Rated T, just in case.
1. Chapter 1: Discovery

**This is my first Minecraft story. I'm a relative newbie at the game, although I've managed to limit my number of deaths to the single digits. This is not a story based on my experiences, though…**

**I do not own Minecraft.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Discovery

He woke at the edge of a jungle.

He possessed no memory of before his arrival. His brain tried to find something, anything. _What was I…? Where is this place? Who… who am I?_

It did not matter that much. It would've been nice to know who he was or what he was doing in this strange jungle, but he did not, and he wasn't going to obsess over it.

He looked around. Everywhere, everything seemed to be made of… squares? Was this normal? Did it even matter?

He sighed and walked forwards. Carefully climbing down some trees, he made his way to the very edge, where the jungle and a forest met. He frowned. _Where should I go? What should I do?_

He took a look down the edge of the jungle, both ways. _Maybe I can keep track if I just follow the edge?_ In both directions, the trees simply faded on. _Keep track of what? There are no landmarks._ _Nothing to keep track of!_

He arbitrarily decided to go left. _Hmm… the sun is to the right. That means its… dawn? Or dusk? Okay._ The knowledge came surprisingly easily. Had he thought about it, he might've wondered where it came from, but he did not.

* * *

Not far from where he woke up, he climbed out of a small depression in the earth, only to come upon something that did not look or feel natural. A long trough seemed to have been dug out of the earth. Next to it, an even deeper trough of the same length had been dug… but this one had some hard stone hanging over the entirety of it, for some reason.

He tried to puzzle it out. _Stone… how is it that the stone isn't falling into the hole? Don't things fall down? Gravity, it's called… Also, why did someone do this? What's the point of this? Maybe I'll meet them and they'll tell me?_

Excited at the thought of others, he raced forwards, only to stop again. _What?_

Everything before that point had been square-shaped. In sharp defiance of that, though, a rounded fence stood, holding in some cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. _That's definitely not natural._

To the right of the animal pen was a broad river, to which someone had constructed a simple irrigation system. _They… grew food here… and then… where did they go?_

He looked around and nearly had a heart attack. _What the heck? Why is that tree on fire?_

Far to the left, high off the ground, fire seemed to hang from a tree. _No… wait…_ On closer inspection, the fire came from a few torches that hung from stone imbedded into the tree.

He walked over to it, seeing nothing exciting other than the torches. _Why are they up… OOF!_ He wasn't paying attention, and he walked into a sign.

He blinked. On the sign, several symbols were marked in an elegant script. No, not symbols, letters! The reading came naturally to him. "Ayol's House. Do not eat my cake. What? Cake?"

He read the odd words again and again. _House? Where? Up… in the tree?_ There didn't seem to be a house up there… _Hey! There's a ladder on the trunk!_

Feeling excited again, he climbed quickly, pulling himself through a hole in the leaves.

It was getting dark by the time he reached the end of the ladder. He found himself in a peculiar room which appeared to grow straight from the tree. The room was so flush and square, though, that it seemed impossible that it was anything but manmade.

There was a small, odd wooden cube of a table with a three-by-three grid etched into the top. Next to that was a small stone depository that was charred on the inside. There were two wooden trunks as well. He opened the closest one.

Inside were many different materials: stone, dirt, wood, wool, sand, glass, and three other kinds of stone that looked different from each other. There was also… _What? Cactus?_ Not to mention many different saplings, flowers, and leaves.

Near the bottom were sacs filled with wheat, apples, and seeds. There was also a niche that had two maps, a compass, and a clock that said it was night.

He had only one thought: _How the heck does all of this fit in this little chest?_

He decided against checking the other chest for now. Instead, he stepped past what he had already discovered to look at the other two rooms.

There were stairs leading up into what was obviously a bedroom. Again, it was not only manmade in appearance, but also seemed to grow from the tree. It was a paradox that was absolutely brilliant. Whoever had made this house had obviously taken nature into account and had fused construction with the tree to create a synthesized harmony that no stone house could compete with.

The bedroom was rather small. It was four-by-four squares and was fenced in. Glass panes extended over the fence to create long windows. A stone block with a torch on it sat next to a bed. Two short bookshelves were also there… and they had cake on top.

He permitted himself a laugh. "So this Ayol did have cake, after all. Okay, I won't eat it." Turning around, he noticed stairs leading up to the leafy top of the tree._ No need to go up there._ There were also two small chests. _More stuff to look in later._

Coming down the stairs, he went into the third and final room. Bookcase after bookcase lined the walls. In the center on a black pedestal lined in diamond, a book floated, turning slowly in a circle. Next to the pedestal was a small table with another, non-floating book on it.

_That is so weird…_ He took a step towards the pedestal, and the book flew open. He jumped back and yelped, and the book closed with an audible thump and started rotating again. _What the heck?_

Cautiously approaching again, the book opened and turned to him. He looked into it, but the symbols on the page made no sense. _These aren't letters… so what are they?_

Nothing at all had been explained. The fact he had no memories, who this Ayol person was, how gravity could be so miraculously defied… nothing.

He picked up the book on the table. Marked on the front was 'Book of Ayol.'

He opened it to the first page.


	2. Chapter 2: The Book

Chapter 2: The Book

**Book of Ayol, Important Note #1:**

**Squares. Squares are the most important thing in this world. Without squares, there would simply be chaos. Squares are important to shape and structure, important to crafting, important to enchanting, important to every single part of this world. When all else fails, remember the squares.**

He blinked at the strange words. The square shape of everything was the most important thing? That sounded… quite ridiculous. He read the next note.

**Book of Ayol, Important Note #2:**

**This world… it feels quite peculiar. As if… this is not the world I belong to. However, even if I do not remember the before-time, that is alright. I will make do with what I have. On that note, always remember that there's so much that can kill you in this world. Falling too far, too fast, fire, lava, drowning, suffocation. But those are not the most dangerous things. **

**Beware the night. In it are so many evil things that you cannot possibly fend them all off. That is one of the reasons why I built this house in a tree. I have had only one encounter up here, and that was with a jockey, perhaps the second-most intelligent creatures out there.**

He was getting the shivers. It was night, and this Ayol had written that night on the ground wasn't safe. He didn't know what a jockey was, but it didn't sound good.

He turned the page. This time, he didn't see an 'Important Note,' but there was writing.

**I lost my first map in the desert today. I have spent much time trying to remake it with a second map. A third map closely details my desert home. It is marked 'map_3,' for simplicity's sake.**

He found himself grinning. This Ayol had a desert home? Maybe Ayol was there! Maybe he could get some answers! He remembered the maps in the first chest. He went over and pulled them out.

Map_2 showed that the treehouse was the center of it. On it were also marked 'The Farm,' close by, and 'Port,' whatever that meant. He saw a great jungle to the North, a vast plain to the Northeast, an icy tundra to the West, and a small forest followed by a wide desert to the South. The map was not entirely filled out, as the direct East, Southeast, and Northwest remained blank.

Map_3 was centered on a dot labeled 'Desert Home,' and was located in the desert to the South. "Okay, that's where I'm going."

He pulled out the Book. _Anything else you have to say, Ayol? I'll be leaving for the desert first thing in the morning._

**Book of Ayol, Important Note #3:**

**When you travel far away from home above ground, you need to take certain things with you. Weapons, materials, armor, coal, wood, etc. You also must have a compass, map, and clock. **

**Note to self: All of my spare items are in the trunk in the North corner of my bedroom. It should have everything required to travel.**

He nodded, went upstairs, and checked the trunk. _Really? You need all of this if you go far away?_

Inside was dirt, stone, a peculiar kind of sandstone, coal, wood, wooden planks, sticks, cooked pork chops and steak, two iron swords, two iron pickaxes, a hoe, a stone shovel, a bow and quiver full of arrows, forty torches, a pair of shears, and armor.

"I… I really need all of this? What do I do with… sixteen blocks of stone?"

Feeling rather foolish, he pulled everything out and stuffed it in a pack he found. _Oh well. Ayol knew this world. I don't. So… might as well try this._

He put the armor on and sheathed the sword. _Now to sleep 'til morning._

* * *

It was raining when he got up, the skies gray. _Nice time to head to the desert, huh?_

He had a small meal of steak and climbed down the tree, checking map_3 and walking South. He passed the small wheat farm and large stalks of sugar.

Crossing the river to a small island, he corrected his course. _I don't want to wind up in the tundra._ He then made it to the Southern edge of the river, where the trees started to thin out.

He passed several trees until… he heard a low, guttural sound. It was a small noise, but it was eerie enough to cause him to spin around. He whipped out his sword in anticipation.

It appeared to be a man with greenish skin in a green shirt and jeans. "Oh! There are other people! Hey, are you okay, man?"

The person did not answer, but continued to walk forward, as if in a daze.

He frowned, then tried again. "I say, are you alright?"

The person got close and swiped at him, scratching him from shoulder to navel in a single blow. It wasn't deep, but it stung.

Yelling, he swung his sword. The creature didn't flinch from the blow, even though he chopped one of its arms off. It moaned its unearthly moan, staggering back from the force, but quickly recovered its balance and moved forwards again.

"I'm sorry. You may have been a person once, but no more." He chopped its head off, and the thing melted, leaving behind a bit of rotten flesh. _What was that? _

Opening the Book of Ayol, he found an index. _This makes things a lot easier._ _Hmm… monsters._

**Monster 1: The zombie**

**As far as I can tell, I am the only human being that exists in this world. However, there are a surprising amount of zombies. I believe that there were a large amount of humans at one point, and a single zombie brought about a sort of apocalypse. I do not remember the before-time, the time before I awoke in the jungle, but it's possible that I was a fighter of zombies. Certainly my hate towards them may prove that… or maybe I just don't like them.**

**In any case, they're humanoid, green-skinned, and want to eat me. They're not very bright, and if you're careful, you can keep them from hurting you at all.**

**Zombies burn to death in the sunlight and only seem to come out at night. Be careful when it rains—there's no sun to kill them.**

He shut the book, annoyed. "_Now_ he tells me."

He looked at the rotten flesh again, then turned away. _I have to be careful. Jockeys… zombies… what's next?_

* * *

The forest abruptly ended with a dune.

Behind him, there was a herd of pigs, mushrooms, and plenty of trees. In front of him, a desert rolled out, occasionally broken by cacti. _Okay… I wonder where the desert home is._

* * *

_Ugh… how long does this go for? The map doesn't show all this!_

He had been walking for hours across the dunes. _If I don't find shelter soon, I'm going to have to face the fact that I'm lost._

The map was very useful. The compass, as well, helped with directions. But out here, there was no way to tell where he had been. The wind brushed away his tracks, and all he had to go on was a piece of painted paper and a hunk of metal with an arrow in it.

Not that he didn't trust these useful instruments… but he'd like some confirmation every once in awhile.

Surprisingly, the desert was filled with quite a bit of water, enough fresh water that it could've probably supported trees. He wondered why the desert stretched on as it did, if that was the case.

He was about to give up when he saw something rising out of the ground in the distance. _What the heck is that?_

He scrambled up the side of the dune, not paying attention to anything but the structure ahead. He got closer to it, fighting the irritating sand for the top. He arrived slowly and painfully, collapsing exhausted. Even with the sand following the cube pattern that the whole world followed, the sand still obeyed gravity. He wondered if Ayol had notes about that in his book.

He looked up at the impossible tower. It was constructed of a single one-by-one pillar of sand and stretched up towards the sky. The block on top was of the same peculiar sandstone that he himself was carrying. _Was Ayol working on this when he made the 'spare item trunk?' _

Even if pillars of sand randomly brought themselves into existence, this one couldn't have been natural. Sticking out of the sandstone, four torches burned brightly, pointing in every direction. He got the sense that this was what he had been looking for. _A landmark._

He checked the map again. There was no mention of a pillar anywhere. He looked around; there was nothing artificial sticking up out of the sand, no stone house or transplanted tree.

He walked to the tower and looked down at the valley between dunes below. _Where is it? According to the map… I should be right on top of it!_

He kicked the pillar, then tripped as his foot slipped on the gritty sand. He rolled down the dune, getting more and more irritated. _Ayol… why'd you make it so hard to find?_

He looked up, getting to his feet and spitting out sand. _No… that's not… that can't be… that's impossible!_

Sticking out from the dune was a wooden door. On either side of it were two torches. _A cave? Constructed right out of the dune? I should've known—Ayol's big on fusing the natural world with whatever he builds… but the sand should fall inward! Sand obeys gravity! There's no way a cave can be built into the side of a dune!_

He walked forwards, then stopped suddenly. _Another sign. This one's not friendly._

The sign read:

WARNING

Thieves will be

eradicated with

extreme prejudice.


	3. Chapter 3: The Monsters

Chapter 3: The Monsters

Hesitantly, he opened the door. "Mr. Ayol?"

No one answered. He looked at the walls. They weren't exactly made out of sand… He rapped his knuckles against them and they rang solid. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made out of decorative sandstone. _That explains how the sand stays on top, rather than falling through._

The single room inside was not very big; it was a five by five room. In one corner was a bed. There was also the same cubed, gridded table and stone depository he had seen at the tree house. _I should learn what they are. If they're important enough that he needed one at each house…_

A chest also sat nearby. He opened it carefully, fearing a trap.

It opened smoothly on its hinges. Inside, there was a piece of paper, gunpowder, bones, string, rotten flesh (he recoiled at the smell), eyes, a pearl, and some cactus.

He frowned and picked up a note that was inside. It said, "Cobblestone found and cooked. Glass production higher. Take supplies to the fortress on the sea, East of the tree."

Frowning in disappointment, he pulled out the book. _Might as well learn what these things are while I'm at it._

**Crafting Tables**

**Of all the things in the world, the crafting table is the most useful, the king of items. Squares are important. Refer to Important Note #1. However, by yourself, you can only create a limited number of items using a four-square grid. When using a crafting table, it allows you to make items using a nine-square grid. This allows the production of doors, glass panes, fences, beds, and all sorts of other things. **

He frowned. Why couldn't he just use the floor to make larger items? That didn't make much sense…

**Crafting tables, like nearly everything else, are imbued with special rules that allow such creation to be possible. Refer to Important Note #4.**

He quickly turned the pages until he got to the note.

**Book of Ayol, Important Note #4:**

**Nearly every item, every material, is imbued with special natural rules that they follow. It's why things can defy gravity or disobey what are considered 'laws' of physics.**

**The first rule is the rule of connectivity. Every 'block' can connect to any other, even to the point where an overhang is so heavy it should collapse.**

**Which brings us to the second rule: the rule of friction. Every 'block' that is unaffected by gravity sticks permanently to other blocks unless manipulated by a living creature.**

**Third rule: the rule of crafting. Simple items such as wooden planks can be made anywhere. However, special items require a crafting table because such tables allow for square arrangements no other material can provide. I have tried with every other material, even netherrack. Only crafting tables can create three-by-three arrangements.**

**There are more rules, but these are the most important.**

"Okay, okay. I get it. But what's netherrack? Which blocks are affected by gravity other than sand? Ayol… you're only inspiring more questions."

He turned the pages again to find out what the depository was.

**Furnaces**

**Furnaces are fueled by coal or sticks. While sticks are more easily found/crafted, coal burns for longer. I recommend only using coal. **

**Furnaces are for transmutation, or turning one thing into something else. You can turn cobblestone into stone, sand into glass, clay into bricks, raw food into cooked food, and ore into ingots.**

_Well, that's rather straightforward. More straightforward than the crafting table._

He looked outside, then at his clock. _Getting dark. I should go to this 'fortress on the sea.' I don't really expect him to be there anymore, though… not after getting here and not finding anything._

He hesitated. Ayol's book said that night was the most dangerous time. _I… I should go out anyways. I'd better learn about the monsters right now. If I have to learn about them later… they might kill me._

Drawing his sword, he exited the desert home. _Thieves will be eradicated with extreme prejudice… but he thought he was the only human. So why'd he make that sign?_

* * *

Walking back across the dunes, he heard a skittering noise.

He froze, looking around. That's when he saw it.

_That is a big spider._

It crept towards him on eight legs, making a chittering sound. He readied his sword… and it jumped at him.

It was like being hit with a sharp rock. Its teeth sunk into his shoulder. Crying out, he swung the sword, cutting off a leg with a lucky blow. The spider jumped back, then jumped forwards again. More prepared this time, he switched to his other hand and brought the sword up through its body. Leaking blood, the spider dropped to the floor, only to jump again.

Unable to react in time, he fell backwards, letting the creature jump over him. As it took the time to turn around, legs getting in the way of each other, he got up and brought his sword down on it.

Like the zombie had, the spider melted, leaving behind a couple pieces of string. He picked them up, wondering what he could possibly do with them. _I better get going before more show up. I'll read about them later._

* * *

As he reached the edge of the forest, it started to rain again. _Great. Night, which is dangerous, and rain, which blocks my view. _

He made it halfway to the treehouse when he noticed a peculiar green thing ahead. It crept about on four legs and had a humanoid face, albeit one that looked permanently upset.

He carefully evaluated it. He hadn't seen any during the day, so it must be a monster of some sort. But this one didn't look fierce. It looked kinda cute, in fact. He walked closer to it, and it made a hissing noise.

"Uh…" He backed up, but it followed him. He readied his sword, but the creature didn't seem to care. It walked closer and stopped. "What are you… heh?"

It grew larger and flashed slightly. He blinked, and there was an explosion.

* * *

He ended up in the bottom of a hole in the ground. Shaking his head, he tapped his ear. There was a ringing sound that wouldn't go away.

Looking up, he jumped back. A zombie had wandered in. With a few swings, the thing melted into rotten meat.

He pulled himself out. _What the heck was that thing? It blew up! It blew a hole in the ground! What kind of suicidal bomber thing was that?_

He didn't waste any more time. He ran for the treehouse. _I must read the book. I don't want to run into anything else that I don't expect._

The green thing attacked differently from the others. Zombies simply walked forwards, hoping to take a bite. Spiders jumped. Those green things… exploded.

There was a sudden _twang_, and an arrow hit the ground right in front of him.

He looked up to see that an entire human skeleton was watching him, holding a bow and arrow. Even as he watched, it carefully pulled another one out of a quiver.

No longer hesitating, he jumped forwards and slashed along its ribs, doing almost nothing to it. It shot two more times. _It's lucky I'm wearing armor. _

He rotated the sword and whacked the skeleton's head with the flat part af the blade. He crushed it, then turned as another _twang _came from behind. Another skeleton had gotten very close while he was occupied with the first one. _What are they, pack hunters?_ With a few blows, he managed to kill this one as well. It melted, leaving behind a single bone.

Picking it up, he started towards the treehouse again. _Must… get to the tree…_

He raced past the weird trough with stone in it; he ran past the farm and the fenced-in animals. Hearing another spider chittering, he pulled himself up the ladder quickly, then fell to the floor, breathing quickly. He pulled out the book of Ayol and turned to the monster section.

**Monster 2: The skeleton**

**Like the zombie, I believe the skeletons to have once been human. There are many differences, though. Zombies are brainless abominations. Skeletons are more like Robin Hood if he knew necromancy. **

**They like to shoot arrows. They're sometimes good at it. That's all I can say.**

**They drop bones, which are good for bone meal, and arrows, which have been very useful, as I feel mining for flint is a waste of time. Like zombies, skeletons burn in the sunlight and only come out at night.**

He frowned. "But what about the ambush? Their behavior? They're not stupid! Why don't you have that in your book? And what in the world is bone meal?"

**Monster 3: The spider**

**I don't know how spiders this big could've possibly originated. Maybe evolution, or perhaps some man-made disaster? It doesn't really matter. They exist.**

**Eight legs, weird teeth and eyes. Also, they can climb, although they're not smart enough to figure out how to climb my tree.**

**They don't burn in the sunlight, but they don't attack when it's bright in the area. Must be nocturnal.**

**They drop string, which is good for fishing poles and bows, and eyes. Not entirely sure what to use them for. Oh well.**

"Eyes? Are you kidding me? Why would you keep them at all…? At least they're not smart enough to climb this tree…"

**Monster 4: The creeper**

**I feel like swearing when I think about these bastards. Not that they really hurt you, but they hurt what you've created. **

**Creepers… explode. They freaking explode. I don't know how they were created… little tenacious exploding punks! I hate them! **

**They're a speckled green with weird faces and four legs. And they explode! Why the Nether would such a creature come into existence? If somebody created this world, they had a sense of humor. And they don't even burn in sunlight!**

**If you manage to kill them before they explode, which is actually easy if no other monster distracts you, they drop gunpowder, which is good for TNT. Dynamite.**

"So _that's_ what that was! So… they're easy to kill before they explode, and you can make dynamite from their remains. Okay, nice to know. If I see another one, I'll run away. But wait… what's the Nether?"

He had many answers, but each one yielded more questions. _I… I'm going to bed. I'll think more about what I want to do in the morning._


	4. Chapter 4: Warning!

Chapter 4: Warning!

When he woke up, he noticed that it was a rather foggy morning. _Mm… I like the fog. It's nice and cool…_

He pulled himself out of bed and ate. _I have a lot of food… but if this continues, I will need to kill some animals… which is probably where all this meat came from in the first place._

He put his armor on and gathered his equipment. _Fortress on the sea, East of the tree. _

* * *

Passing near the river, he noticed that there was a small dock. What was odd was that it appeared to be glowing.

Sneaking near to the edge, he realized that the glow was coming from underwater.

_What is that? It's some kind of rock. Ayol uses mostly torches… but this is brighter than torches. Can it only be used underwater?_

He was tempted to pull out the book, but decided against it. _That would only lead to more questions. This is a strange world, and I shouldn't be surprised that there are rocks that glow._

* * *

He arrived at a small lake at the fringes of some mountains as it was getting dark. Peering across the water, he saw a large structure made out of cobblestone.

Which was certainly strange because Ayol was big on fusing his homes with the natural world. This was the most unnatural thing he could think of: an obviously manmade stone fort that was apparently floating on the surface of the water.

_I'm going to have to swim._ It was an odd thought. He hadn't really needed to do that at all; all of the water he had come across had been shallow.

He frowned. _I need to get there before the monsters show up. It's already dark… they should be appearing any second._

Taking a few steady breaths, he plunged into the water. It wasn't until then that he remembered he was wearing an iron plate shirt.

_Crap! I need to get back! I need to… I need… eh?_ Oddly enough, the armor wasn't weighing him down at all. _What the… heck?_

_THIS IS EASY!_

Swimming was the easiest thing ever. He felt more buoyant than a flotation device. _Now, to get to the fortress… it looks more like a small fort than a 'fortress.' _

The doors were made of iron and there were no handles. Getting out of the water onto the stone jutting from beneath the door, he sighed. He would be safe this evening.

As if to contradict him, there was a sharp noise from across the lake.

Spinning around, he looked around with his keen eyes and noticed… nothing.

Unnerved, he turned back to the doors and took a step towards them.

They swung open.

Startled, he took a step back. The doors closed again. He stepped forwards once more. They opened. _Uh… some sort of pressure plate?_

Stepping inside, the door closed again. The room was fairly large; it was a ten by ten room. In all four corners, the same glowing rock from the river dock was stuck on poles to light the room. _Huh. Why is he only using it in certain places?_

In the furthest corner, a staircase led up to the second floor. He climbed it quickly, hoping that Ayol might be up there.

He wasn't. There was a crafting table and a furnace. This time, there wasn't even a treasure chest. However, there was a note…

It was scrawled across the wall in blood. "They've gotten smarter! If you see this, get out! They're coming!"

There was a noise downstairs. The noise of the doors opening.

He attempted to slow his heart down. _It could be Ayol. It doesn't have to be a monster, even if it is night…_

He peered down from the stairs, being careful to make no noise. _Dang it!_

Several skeletons had entered. _So… maybe Ayol never got to write this down in his book? He made that 'important note' about them getting smarter here. But why the warning? Wasn't he the only human he knew of?_

The skeletons spread out. One of them spoke, almost causing him to gasp.

"He here. I saw him. Human came in here."

Another that had a large gash on its face nodded. "I trust you. New human… he kill two of us and other creatures too."

The third, this one missing three ribs, growled. "New human… The Ayol was bad, now a new one."

The first one nodded. "The Ayol was bad, but gone now. Good thing. The Ayol near kill us. But we need think! New human."

Gashface pointed. "Stairs."

Ribs made a peculiar purring noise and drew its bow. "Pincushion."

Startled, he looked about frantically. _Escape, escape! This upstairs is a deathtrap! Wait… no it isn't!_

In the back corner was a small hall. _Better than nothing!_ He rushed down it, only to stop. It led to a small tunnel with a ladder. _The only way to go is… down? Screw it! Talking skeletons!_

He climbed down the shaft, hearing the skeletons clicking above. As he reached the bottom, he heard one say, "Hey! Ladder!"

He ran along a new tunnel, noting a few drops of water leaking through the ceiling. Turning a corner, he saw a dead end. _I'm so screwed… wait a second._ He looked up and saw a trapdoor. And above that… was the lake.

_An underwater escape hatch. That is simultaneously ingenious and idiotic! Ingenious because it's a way to escape, idiotic, because it will flood this entire tunnel!_

A clattering noise came from behind. "Here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath.

The trapdoor opened, and no water came down. The lake sat nicely and calmly above the opening. _Why am I not surprised that physics is taking such a beating?_ He jumped through the opening and swam to the surface.

* * *

Gashface looked up at the trapdoor. "Underwater bad for bones."

Ribs growled. "No pincushion?"

The last skeleton shook its head. "New human tricky. Used the Ayol's escape."

* * *

He lay on the shore, panting for air. _Can't stay here long! Need to get back to the tree! _The tree was the only safe place that he knew of. The monsters couldn't get him there. Summoning all of his strength, he got up.

Blowing past two slow moving zombies and a creeper, he ran as quickly as he could towards his haven. A skeleton to the left noticed him and shot wide, but he took no time to engage it. _The skeletons… are intelligent! They can talk!_

* * *

Gashface arrived with its two companions at the skeleton village. The skeleton known as Four-arms quickly ran forwards. "You find new human?

Ribs turned slightly away. "No pincushions at all."

Four-arms swung three of its arms agitatedly. "But you find him? He real?"

Gashface's other companion grinned as only a skeleton could. "He real, alright."

* * *

_Sorry, Ayol. I need something sweet._ Back in the tree, he cut a piece of cake off, eating it slowly and enjoying the flavor.

It was nearly morning, but he was exhausted. The skeletons had prompted him to run as fast as he could for a long time. _I… should sleep. And when I wake up, I need to read more of the book and try to get a good idea of how to create stuff. Like swords. And traps. And… maybe guns, if there's gunpowder. I'm not sure if I can even do that. _

_Skeletons that talk… must be a recent thing. An unexpected thing, from Ayol's warning. _

_Ayol… did the skeletons kill you? Are you one of them now? Or are you still out there? I should follow your map to all of the places you were. And only once I'm certain you're dead will I stop searching._


	5. Chapter 5: The Final Note

Chapter 5: The Final Note

Upon waking, he slid out of bed and stretched. Somehow, even after the very little sleep he'd gotten, he felt very refreshed.

He ate breakfast quickly and pulled out map_2, eyeing the plains to the Northeast. _It'd be easy to get lost out there, right? Especially since he left all his maps behind._

He climbed out of the tree carefully, going to the edge of the river. _I'd like a boat or something. I don't want to swim the entire river…_

_Such a big project probably needs a crafting table._ Laughing, he dragged himself back into the tree and pulled out the book, turning it to the section labeled 'Crafting.'

_Hmm… boats. Boats. Uh… here._

**Arrange wooden planks in a small U shape at the bottom of the table.**

**_._._  
**

**x _ x**

**x x x**

…_Okay. I suppose that's simple._ He placed the planks in the arranged pattern. _Now what?_

After a few seconds, much to his surprise, the planks started glowing and carefully fused together. When the process was done, what was left was a boat. "So that's crafting. It's really interesting."

Climbing down the tree again, he went back to the river and placed the boat. He got in, pushing hard against the shore. _Now this is more like it._

* * *

The river didn't actually go that far, so before he knew it, he had reached the end. Getting out, he checked the map. There was just a little bit of jungle, and after that were the plains.

* * *

Entering the broad, open expanse of land, he sighed with relief. There were small hills in between the jungle and plains that made it difficult to enter. Sadly, elevation wasn't marked on the map.

Taking a look at the map again, he tried to figure out where Ayol could've went. He peered down, noticing a red dot among the green of the plains. _What's that doing there?_

He ran towards it, using the compass to correct his course. As it turned out, it wasn't a mark of significance. In actuality, the red dot marked an open lava pool.

Feeling the heat, he stayed several feet away. It was then that he noticed an ember jump out of the pool with a popping noise, landing on a nearby tree and setting it on fire. Shocked, he could only watch as the fire consumed the poor tree.

_Note to self: lava is dangerous. If you didn't know that before, now you do._

He ran past the pool to the very edge of the plains. A great expanse of water sat ahead. He smiled. This big continent had limits after all. He took a look at his clock. _Nearly evening. I should be heading back._ He was about to turn and go when he saw something underneath the water, lighting up the black depths._ What is that?_

He swam out above it and peered through the water. _It looks like… glass, sort of. _He looked back at the shore. Gathering his resolve, he dove.

Far below, on the ocean floor, was a small dirt building. The ceiling seemed to be made of glass panes. He floated downwards until he went through a square that was made by the connection of panes, landing hard in a tiny room. He looked up. _How did I get through the panes… when water doesn't? It's like that trapdoor earlier._

The room was four by four. On one side were a set of double doors. When he opened them, no water flooded into the room. It just sat on the other side. "Ayol must really know how to mess with water."

In the room were two furnaces, a crafting table, a chest, and a bed. _So Ayol knew this journey was too far to get back in a single day. That's why he made a bed. _On every wall, torches were attached near the panes that made up the ceiling. _How many homes does Ayol have? It seems too many._

He went to the chest and opened it. Inside, the items were mostly the same to the ones he found back at the tree: building materials, iron ingots, items gathered from defeated enemies, sugar, wheat, and paper. There was also a note, which made him rather thankful.

"This place is safe from skeletons, unlike the fortress. But torches don't work underwater. Have tried using panes to keep them burning, but it's more trouble than necessary. I need more glowstone. Headed to Port."

_Glowstone? Must be that rock that glows underwater. Obviously, he didn't finish the project, because I don't see any around. That means he's at this 'Port' place. Where have I heard that before?_

He pulled out Map_2 and inspected it. "That's where I heard of it before." On the map, the dot labeled 'Port' was just slightly North of East of the tree. When he went to the fortress… he had just barely gone out of its way. But now he was headed there… in the morning. There was a convenient bed, and it was night on the surface.

* * *

Gashface had started out as the sun set, its burning rays disappearing. The skeleton had spent several hours searching around the fortress before deciding to head to what the village generally called "Ayol Tree." The Ayol's first home, the Ayol Tree was near impossible to attack. The jockeys had tried before, but Ayol had created a bow and shot all of them down.

Usually, going to that tree was a death sentence.

However, ever since the Ayol had vanished, the tree was perfectly fine to approach. Some of the more recently created skeletons even went to touch it, never having known the dangers.

Gashface planned to do more than touch it.

It went over to the ladder, wondering what the sign meant. Hesitating for a moment, it climbed the ladder, shielding its eyes from the over-brightness of the torches. Light was bad, but it would brave the sunlight if it meant bringing down this one new human.

Gashface was a bit different from the other skeletons. The rest seemed to have no real life in them, and aimlessly walked around, looking for prey to hunt down. They needed prey, of course, to suck the life energy out of. But a village always stuck in survival mode never really had the chance to create.

Gashface, however, had a bit of inspiration in it. It was the one who suggested building dark houses on the surface, to get to the prey quicker. It was the one who had nearly killed Ayol, but instead received a large gash on its face. When the new human arrived, Gashface was the first to try to hunt him down, gathering others as well. It knew that the skeleton race had more potential than it was using, and Gashface was rather disappointed at that.

Ribs, one of the few it could consider a friend, _almost _had what Gashface had, but the relatively young skeleton didn't _quite _get Gashface's dream. That's why it was left behind tonight. Ribs wouldn't understand the necessity of killing this new human, instead just thinking it was something to do for fun. And all the other skeletons simply saw the new human as something of a curiosity. Gashface knew better.

Humans had what it had, that inspiration. That made humans deadly.

Reaching the room, Gashface looked around at everything that was constructed. It didn't quite understand the bookshelves or furnace. The crafting table was something all skeletons used to make bows and arrows. Gashface opened a chest, finding building materials, weapons, and plants. Gashface didn't know why the Ayol liked plants.

Turning to another chest, Gashface opened it, too. This one contained raw supplies, leftover ladders, trapdoors, glass panes, and lots of buckets. Gashface closed it. It was rather curious about what humans kept around, and speculated about what a bucket was for.

Gashface entered the bedroom and opened the third chest, which turned out to be empty. It noticed the bed and wondered what such a thing could possibly be for. It turned to the fourth and final chest.

Trophies: gunpowder, ender pearls, string, rotten flesh, spider eyes, and… thirty-four bones. And twelve bone meal besides.

Angered, it shut the chest quickly. "The Ayol dared take our bones and grind them up. I'm glad you gone, Ayol! Curse you…" Not seeing the new human anywhere, Gashface climbed back down the ladder. "If new human not here, where…?"


	6. Chapter 6: What in the Blazes?

Chapter 6: What in the Blazes?

After a nice breakfast of steak, he traveled back across the great plains. The weather was nice for a change, and the sun shined cheerfully. Now that he thought about it, the sun was a square, too.

An odd creeper strolled around aimlessly in the distance. He hiked up the hills near the edge of the forest and plains, trying to ignore the suicide bomber.

* * *

It was nearly evening as he arrived at the docks and got out of his boat, anchoring it. He examined the glowstone, wondering how it did what it did and wondering what 'Port' could possibly be be. _It can't hurt to take a look before heading home._

Using his compass to change directions accurately, he walked slightly Northeast. He pushed back some brush and walked around the side of a cliff into a small valley that he hadn't noticed before.

He could make out a strange light where the valley ended in a sheer cliff face. Going closer, he realized that it was coming from a strange formation of pitch-black rock.

It was five by four with a two by three opening in the center. The opening was glowing a strange purple color that reminded him of lilacs, even though he hadn't seen lilacs since he woke up.

Trying to push the vague memory aside, he walked even closer to the rock. There were two signs on the left and right. The first one said, "The Nether" and the second one said, "Welcome to Hell!"

A strange shudder went through him. Ayol had mentioned 'the Nether' in passing. He used it like one would use a curse word. The second sign didn't do anything to cure his uneasiness.

He took another step forward and realized it made an odd sound. Looking down, he saw that within a four-square radius of the formation, there was no grass. Even though grass could've grown there, it simply didn't. The fact that life rejected the black rock made him wish he could just run away, but he didn't. The odd purple light enthralled him.

He reached out and touched it.

* * *

_Did you feel that?_

_A door opened._

_Yes, a door. A door!_

_Your excitement is understandable, but calm down just a little bit. Do you know what this means?_

_The surface. We can go there. After all this time, we can go there._

_Is it possible? Is it? IS IT?_

* * *

The moment he touched it, his body lost all strength. He fell through the formation, ending up enveloped in the light. It felt hot and cold. It felt like a current was being run through his skin. It felt like he had jumped into a pool of liquid steel, and then cooled and hardened.

When it ended, he was lying on the floor. Looking up, he realized that he was not in the same place.

…

_WHAT THE HECK? What is this? Where am I? Why…? _It took him a second to work it out. _'Port' means… portal. Great. I just teleported. But… this place is… the Nether?_ The words "Welcome to Hell" floated in front of his eyes.

Looking left and right, he certainly agreed that the Nether matched that description. 'Hell' was a good word for it.

He had ended up in a cave with only one opening. The rock all around was dark red and speckled. Some of it was on fire. Behind him, the portal shined.

However, none of that attracted his attention so much as the heat did. It was probably hot enough to fry an egg in its shell.

_Okay. Goal one: find Ayol. This is the last place he said he was going. Goal two: leave and never come back._

He headed down the tunnel. It slowly narrowed until it was just big enough to let him through. _It goes on a long way._

* * *

It felt like hours until the path suddenly turned. He checked the clock to try to determine exactly how long he had been there.

The clock turned quickly from day to night and back, and even went backwards, as if to say, "Sorry buddy, this is the Nether. Time has no meaning here."

_Great, just great. Clock's not working, maps don't apply here, and compass… is spinning randomly. If not for the fact that this tunnel is going one way only, I'd get completely lost down here._

* * *

The small tunnel ended, connecting to a wide area. _Finally!_

He slowly lowered himself down a short hill, making a mental note to remind himself where the opening was.

The place was large and flat. Several wood-and-stone structures dotted the landscape. _Other people?_ Excited by the idea, he quickened his pace.

He stopped suddenly. A door had opened. The creature that walked out of the dwelling looked like a pig, but was as tall as a man and walked on two legs.

His eye twitched. _What… is… that?_

The creature looked up at him, then turned around and walked away. "Hey… wait up! Where are you going?"

He ran after it, wondering vaguely how wood got here in the first place. The pigman stopped and turned around again, grunting.

"Oh, thanks for stopping. Uh… can you… speak?"

The pigman grunted and nodded slowly.

"Good. I was wondering if you've seen another human like me around here."

The pigman continued to nod.

"Alright. Where is he?"

The pigman didn't stop nodding.

He was somewhat confused. "Uh… hello? Where did you see him?"

The pigman stood straight and seemed proud of itself, as if it had accomplished something of great importance. It then turned and left, leaving him very confused indeed.

More doors opened, and little pigmen ran around, playing tag. The older ones stood across from each other, nodding and grunting.

All in all, he found it creepy. _It's like they're stuck doing the same things over and over again. I don't know why they're doing this, but I suppose their culture makes sense to them._

He spotted another, similar village off in the distance through the odd fog that was everywhere.

* * *

By his fourth village, he wanted to massacre all of the pig-headed freaks.

He made sure not to lose his way, making sure he noted which way was which before moving on. The pigmen were everywhere, but not particularly helpful. It was as if they had a vague idea that he existed, but didn't believe it entirely. Now he wandered around in search of Ayol, or at least someone who would talk to him. He entered the fourth village's square, thinking slowly.

That's when he heard it: a giggling noise.

It sounded close and none of the pigmen seemed to care. They happily wandered about their business. The noise cooed and giggled some more, making a high pitched sound no pigman was capable of. _Where is it?_

He started to panic. In the fog, it was difficult to see much that was very far away. And he had heard enough weird sounds in just the tree alone to know that an unknown sound probably didn't belong to something friendly.

The noise giggled again and changed to a sort of spitting sound. He froze, wondering at the significance.

A house blew up.

The pigmen suddenly panicked, scrambling around like normal pigs would have. The spitting sound happened again and another house blew up.

One pigman grabbed a bow and shot up in the air. A fireball shot out from the fog and blew up the ground, sending the poor creature tumbling down a cliff.

"Will someone here tell me what that is? Somebody tell me!"

The pigmen ignored him and equipped themselves with various tools and weapons. A few took aim at something that started to emerge from the fog.

It was gigantic. It looked like somebody had taken one of the giant squid of the surface and twisted it, mutating it into something most unnatural. It cooed, then shrieked as one of the pigmen shot it. It spat fire out of its mouth and blew up another house.

_I have to stop it before it blows up everything! _He pulled out the bow and quiver he had found in Ayol's tree. Before this point, he had never really had a chance to use it, but now seemed like a good time. _I hope I'm a good sniper._

He cocked an arrow, drew back, breathed in, and fired.

And completely missed. _Oh, come on!_

He tried again, remembering where the arrow went and how it felt.

The arrow shot forwards and struck the thing in the eye. The floating creature shrieked again and melted, leaving behind a bit of gunpowder.

He relaxed, then turned around to face the village. The pigmen had gone back to their business of standing around and nodding at each other. "What, not even a thank you?"

He turned around, then felt a tug on his pants. Looking down, he saw a young pigman holding out some kind of red fungus. "Uh… thanks?" He took it gingerly. _This is too weird. I need to get out of here._

* * *

He climbed the stairs as quickly as he could. "AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Behind him, the horde reached the bottom and started climbing as well. "SQUEEEEEEAL!"

He had found a gigantic fortress made out of peculiar dark bricks. When he had gone up to it, he had found several pigmen who looked rotten and made half-grunting, half-moaning sounds. _Great, zombies have invaded Hell._

However, walking by them provoked no response at all. _Maybe they only eat pig people?_

The first clue that they shouldn't have been messed with should've been that they were zombies. The second should've been that they all carried gold swords. Just to see what would happen, he had swung at one, chopping its head off.

Apparently, that's all it took for the rest to go on the offense.

"I'm sorry! Stop chasing me! AAAAAAAAH!" He ran down the corridors, getting lost.

The zombie pigmen didn't stop advancing. There were at least a dozen of them, and all of them charged full tilt, waving their swords around.

Finding a niche, he jumped in it, rolling out of sight. He peeked around the corner.

The zombie pigmen, after losing sight of him, seemed to awaken from a deep sleep. They all turned and wandered away slowly.

He sighed. "That's one way to kill yourself: attack the zombie pigmen."

There was a groaning noise. He froze, turning slowly.

He was in a small jail. Multiple areas were sectioned off with iron bars. "He-hello?"

The groaning sound happened again. He zeroed in on a single cell. In it was a girl who was maybe ten years old, lying on the floor. "Hello?"

She coughed weakly. "Water… water."

He paused for a minute to think this through. He was elated that he found a fellow human, of course, but… _I need to get her out of here right now. I haven't seen any water at all down here… I'm sorry, Ayol. But this girl is more important than you right now._

He pulled out his iron pickaxe and banged it against the bars until they broke. The girl winced. "No, no. Too loud. They'll come."

He didn't hesitate and smashed the last bars apart. "Yeah, yeah. If something comes, I'll deal with it."

He picked up the girl with a bit of effort. It was surprising to him because he could carry huge amounts of solid rock, sand, and dirt. Doing that was effortless, but this girl was somehow heavier than all of that.

He moved as best as he could through the fortress. The girl helped ever so often by pointing towards the way out.

When he reached the entrance, he heard some strangely heavy breathing. "Uh… what?"

The girl winced again. "They heard you. Blazes. They have good hearing. They build the…" She broke off into an extended fit of coughing.

He frowned. "Don't speak. I'll get you out of here. Just don't speak."

The breathing became more pronounced.

* * *

_Someone took the human girl._

_The same person opened the door!_

_Don't kill him. Scare him, sure! But we need him to lead us to the door!_

* * *

He ran as fast as he could. Even then, his arms were tiring and the breathing sound was catching up. They were no longer in the fortress, but he still couldn't see his pursuers.

He ran into the third pigman village. "Just two more, then a long tunnel. Do you think you're going to make it?"

The girl smiled a sad smile and nodded.

There were several squeals. He turned around to see his opponents at last. There were about a dozen of them. And they were killing all of the pigmen.

The blazes were seemingly made of smoke and bars of white-hot iron, with a humanoid head that was constantly twitching and grinning. They floated above the ground and shot fireballs that they formed within their core.

One of them spoke with a gravelly voice. "Run little piggies, run! Blaze, blaze, blaze!"

He groaned. "I've had enough talking monster issues with the skeletons…"

The girl groaned. "Run… faster…"

He didn't need more prompting than that.

* * *

_The human boy runs quickly._

_Surprising that he's strong enough to carry all of that armor, tools, and her, and run quickly._

_The surface. We're close to it. I can feel it. Just through this narrow tunnel…_

_Hey, Aldrajl, you're in front. Fire off a few charges to let them know we're still serious._

_I got it, don't worry._

* * *

Three more shots hit the wall behind them, setting the reddish rock on fire. Despite that, he managed to stay quiet, not cursing or yelling, although he _really_ wanted to. He was more worried about the girl than himself, and the tunnel was long.

He stepped into the wide cavern at the end and ran full-tilt towards the portal. His arms and legs burned with the effort, but he jumped through without a second thought.

* * *

_A door…_

_A door._

_A door!_

_A DOOR!_

_A DOOR!_

_A DOOR! A DOOR! A DOOR!..._

* * *

The hot/cold/electric/hardening sensation was the least of his worries. _What if there are monsters around?_ He checked the clock, surprised to see that it was earlier than when he went through. _I got an hour at least._

He ran as quickly as he could to the nearest pool of water and set the girl down gently. He pulled a small bottle out of his backpack and filled it with water, putting it in the girl's mouth to let her drink. He did this over and over again.

* * *

The blazes left their realm and took in the new sights. Grass. Trees. Water, especially, was a new one for them.

_So what do we do now, Yamataq?_

_Well, what do you suppose we should do? Let's go find our creator. But first, you see that grassy mountain way off in the distance?  
_

_Yes, Yamataq, we do._

_That's our new home. And the first thing we're going to do is burn every living thing on it. Burn them all._

* * *

It was night before the girl seemed like she was recovered. "I'm… I'm good now. Do you have any food? I'm ravenous. The blazes don't feed prisoners very well. They wouldn't listen when I told them I can't eat fire."

He smiled tentatively and handed her some steak. "Why'd they throw you in there in the first place?"

The girl ate quickly. "I was from 'the surface.' Which is what they call the Overworld."

"The Overworld?"

The girl pointed around. "Earth, if you want. This place. The Nether is an alternate dimension. And not fun. They wanted to get here."

He nodded, then looked around at the dark clearing. "We should get going before monsters show up."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why?"

He hesitated. "What? What do you mean, 'why?' Monsters are going to show up."

Right on cue, there was a clicking sound. He pulled his sword out of his sheath and spun around. "Get behind me."

Seven skeletons stepped out of the shadows. Gashface stepped forwards. "We follow tracks. New human, you die, now. As different one of us say, 'pincushion.' With many pins." _Finally. Danger goes away._

The other six skeletons chuckled, smiling with eternal grins. They pulled out arrows and drew their bows.

He swallowed. Even with his armor, there was no way he could survive this. "St-stay behind me… huh?" The girl was no longer there and his shovel, bow, and quiver were missing.

There was a large crack. He turned to face forwards only to be presented with a strange image.

The girl was using the stone shovel to bash in the skeletons' heads. The closest skeletons, surprised, were unable to react in time. She quickly switched to the bow and fired off three shots, each one ending up in a skeleton's forehead. They all dropped like rocks, melting into nothingness until Gashface was the only one left.

It growled. "You."

The girl smiled. "Me. Hello, Mr. Inspiration."

Gashface shot an arrow, but the girl deflected it with her shovel and jumped forwards. "Allow me to make that gash wider." She plunged the shovel through its face as easily as one plunges it into the ground. Gashface melted, leaving behind its bow and two bones.

The girl cheered. "Loot! Sweet!"

He stared in awe. "What? How did you…? Who _are _you?"

The girl spun on her heel to face him. "Well, if you're from around here, you've probably heard of me. I'm Ayol, hunter of zombies and bane of skeletons. And I'd like to thank you for rescuing me."


	7. Chapter 7: A Day of Insanity

Chapter 7: A Day of Insanity

"_You're_ Ayol."

"Yes."

"You? But… but…"

Ayol picked up Gashface's bow, plucking it experimentally. "What were you expecting?"

He hesitated. "I thought you were a guy."

Ayol paused, seeming to consider that. She pulled the waist of her pants out and looked down. "Nope. I don't see anything that would suggest that."

He was at a loss for words. _What? Why did…? That just…_ Ayol just blew his mind.

She winked at him. "Although, if that changes, I'll let you know. Probably by screaming."

He started to get a bad feeling. _Is she this… way… all the time?_

Ayol put the bow away and collected the bones. "Now… I believe you wanted to go somewhere? If I may suggest a place, I'd like to go back to my tree."

He nodded. "Yeah. Okay. I've been there. It's nice."

Ayol smiled. "It was my first home. There were monsters around, so I climbed up there and dug out a little hidey-hole. Using the rule of connectivity to graft stuff on is great."

He hesitated. "Uh… every 'block' can connect to any other, even to the point where an overhang is so heavy it should collapse?"

Ayol nodded. "Yup! Sounds straight out of my…" She paused, looking at him. "My book. Did you read my book?"

Her staring was making him uncomfortable. "Yeah. Well… it was very useful. And stuff. And it's one of the reasons I thought you were a guy. It was more of an encyclopedia than a diary."

She frowned. "It was my special place to complain about the world, but if you found it that useful… then please keep it. Oh, wait. Give it to me for about a day, first. I need to write about the skeletons and blazes and things."

He handed it over, and she started walking backwards towards the tree, dodging trees and dips in the ground as if she had memorized the path. He followed, somewhat unnerved. "Uh… so I have some questions for you. Like, how come this armor fits me if you're… what, ten?"

She hopped over a small hole. "Have you looked in a piece of polished iron lately? You're about the same age I am. Silly boy…"

"Yeah, well, I don't know anything about myself. I don't even know my freaking _name_."

Ayol dodged another tree. "Oh. So you have a before-time too. Well, silly boy, how about we give you a name? I had to give one to myself. Let's see… how about Fiddlesworth?"

He tripped and fell. "WHAT? No! That's it, you're not naming me. I'm naming myself!"

Ayol giggled. "So what is your name, then?"

He got up and started following after her again. "When I think of something, I'll let you know."

* * *

The skeleton village was in an uproar. Ayol had been gone for a large amount of time, and now the Ayol was back. And on top of that, Gashface was dead. It had led them out of the caves and onto the surface. It had given them what they all needed to build and move. And now the great skeleton was dead.

The news had come quickly through a few members of Gashface's party that had been held in reserve. The village had immediately gone to work.

Gashface's dream of the skeleton race's potential was now realized. The inspiration was set upon the lot of them, and not just because of their mourning.

It was because of the want for revenge for their seven fallen comrades. They all wanted to kill the Ayol. And none of them needed sleep.

The villagers were no longer trapped in survival mode. Now they were tapping into their creative energies to kill the humans.

* * *

Ayol pulled herself up the tree smoothly. He followed, astonished by how carefree she was. _Isn't she worried about falling?_

Ayol pulled open the first treasure chest and dropped seeds, saplings, and leaves into it. "And there go the plants…" She started to hum. "And the netherrack."

He blinked. "Netherrack?"

She pulled out some of the red rock. "Yeah. The rock from the Nether that burns indefinitely when you light it on fire. I don't use it for anything, but that's alright. After all, I love having explosive materials in a home literally made from firewood."

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. _Someday, I'm going to learn how to respond to her weird sense of humor._

She skipped to the second chest, depositing some yellow powder. "And here goes the glowstone!"

He peered at it. "Glowstone? I thought it was that rock near your docks."

She nodded. "Yes, it is. You see, when you glue a whole bunch of this together, you get a solid block! And somehow the glue doesn't block any of the light! Aren't the physics awesome?"

He nodded. "I saw your underwater house. It's almost as if physics said, 'screw this' and left."

She ran up the stairs and fell onto the bed. "Oh, soft bed… how I've missed you."

He walked up. "How long were you there?"

She spun around on the mattress. "I don't know. It was a long while… I'd have to say about… did you eat my cake?"

He blinked. "What? Oh… yes. I had a slice."

She frowned. "Even when my sign told you not to?"

He nodded, wondering what she was going to do. "Yeah… sorry… I guess."

She held up her hand. "No, it's alright. The sign was for laughs. I had this idea of a guy walking through the woods, completely lost, and then he stumbles onto that sign… The look of confusion was great in my head!"

He sighed. "Well, it worked. That was more or less how it happened with me."

She burst out laughing. "That's just awesome. I should rewrite it… 'Do not eat my cake… on Fridays.' BWAHAHAHAHAHA…"

He nodded slowly. "O…kay… how do you know what day Friday is?"

She grinned. "I don't. That's why it's funny." She got up and went to the third treasure chest. "Here are the bones… I can grow trees later…"

He calmed himself and asked another question. "And what do bones have to do with growing trees?"

* * *

The mountainside sat, nice and peaceful. A single chicken sat at the very top, clucking softly. The grass blew noiselessly in the night wind.

Then the blazes came.

Three fireballs set the grass alight. The chicken had barely any time to react before it turned into cooked chicken with a squawk. The dirt itself fizzled, the stone shattered, and the sand turned to glass.

The eleven blazes gleefully started tearing into the ground, constructing burnt-out caverns downwards.

Makateon grinned wide. _The bottom cave is for you, Yamataq._

The elder blaze nodded and settled down into the place. _Very good. We start our search soon._

* * *

"And why do you keep spider eyes if you don't ever use them for anything?"

Ayol seemed exhausted. "Because… they're trophies. Each one from a spider I killed. You know… like…" She yawned. "Sleepy, now. Goodnight, silly boy." She jumped on the bed and snuggled in.

He frowned. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"

She looked up, smiling slightly. "Right here, of course. You'll help me stay warm on this cold night, right?"

He started and blushed. "What? I… sleep with you?"

She yawned again, looking amused. "Of course. What's wrong with that?"

He tried to think. _She's screwing with me._ "I think I'll sleep over near the floating book."

Now Ayol was glaring at him. "When I said, 'help me stay warm,' I was serious. I've been in a place that's hot as, well, Hell, for a long time and gotten used to it, and this cold is horrible. Now, do I have to force you here, or are you going to get in bed of your own free will?"

Deciding that it was best to be on friendly terms with someone who killed seven skeletons in a row, he complied. Ayol smiled and snuggled close to him. He was just trying to concentrate on staying in the bed. _If she's going to insist on this every night, I might have to craft a bigger bed. Ugh… I kinda screwed myself over, rescuing her…_

* * *

The next morning, he woke up to an odd humming noise. He looked around and realized that Ayol was no longer in bed. "Hello? Ayol? Are you there?"

He got out of bed and walked down the stairs. In the book room, Ayol was sitting in front of the strange floating book with Gashface's bow. The book was making the humming noise.

The first time he'd seen the floating book, it had scared the living daylights out of him. As time passed and he'd lived in the tree, he began to regard the peculiar thing as a sort of joke. It never really occurred to him that it had a _purpose_.

Ayol held her hand over the bow. She then stopped the book's turning pages with a finger and spoke. "Beast Niktu Snuff Fiddle."

The bow emitted a small whistle and started glowing. After a few seconds, the whistle stopped and the floating book slammed shut. Ayol grabbed the bow and proceeded to examine it. "Hmm… Infinity? Yes. And Flame. That's cool. So… perfect for what I do."

"What are you doing?"

Ayol turned quickly at the sound of his voice. "Oh. Good morning! I was just enchanting the bow from Mr. Inspiration. It was a good bow, and now it's even better."

He scratched his forehead. "Enchanting? Really? On top of smashing open the laws of physics and suicide monsters, fresh water everywhere in the desert and zombie pigmen, we have _magic?_ As if this world wasn't messed up already."

Ayol shrugged. "Dude, it took a lot just to get the obsidian for this, and all it does is make tools better. Don't complain. This is one of the _good _things about this world."

"Obsidian? Isn't that some sort of volcano rock?"

Ayol nodded. "Yes. Well… not the way I make it. But generally, yes."

He struggled with a vague memory. "Isn't it… brittle, or something?"

Ayol laughed. "Seriously? No, obsidian isn't brittle. Quite the opposite. It's almost indestructible. It's the stuff used to make a Nether portal. I don't often use it because it takes forever to move after you've placed it."

He frowned. "Wait… explain that to me."

Ayol raised an eyebrow. "Surely you've noticed how something is different just because you're carrying it, right?"

He held up a finger. "How does that make any sense?"

Ayol shrugged. "Nothing I do makes sense. So why should I care if my pockets match that pattern?"

"That's a surprisingly good point."

* * *

The blazes were completely confused.

_Yamataq, it's bright out… _

_There's a big fiery thing in the sky. _

_Why did it become bright?_

_Where did that other thing in the sky go? _

_How come there isn't a ceiling beyond the sky?_

Yamataq ended their muttering. _This isn't the Nether. We can't expect it to stay the same brightness all the time anymore. We cannot expect there to be the same species here, either. Get used to the fact that there's no ceiling up there and that strange objects float through it. We're here to search for our creator. Not to grumble about a lack of ceilings!_

* * *

"We're out of meat."

Ayol looked up from her new bow. "Oh, really?" A peculiar glint entered her eyes.

He nodded. "Yes. So what happens now?"

Ayol jumped to the plant-filled chest and put the bow in it. She grabbed a few bundles of wheat and tossed one to him. "Now we… _**slaughter **_some animals!"

He hesitated at the peculiar emphasis she had put on the word 'slaughter.' "Come again?"

She put a finger to her lips. "Hmm… I have eight cows in the pen. Which means we can have four steaks. There are also the pigs to consider."

He frowned. "Four? That would mean that you would need to search for four more cows!"

She shook her head. "No I won't. That's what the wheat's for." She dropped out of the tree.

Intrigued, he followed, albeit more carefully. "You don't grow wheat to make bread?"

"Nope! I don't grow enough wheat for that. I grow wheat for these animals." She went up to the fence. "Okay… ready? It can be quite startling the first time." She held up the wheat.

"The first time of—whoa!" The animals suddenly swarmed towards her, pushing against the fence and against each other.

Ayol pointed at two cows. "In order to get more, you feed two cows wheat. Watch." She fed two of the mooing animals. Their white fur turned reddish, and they turned towards each other and kissed.

He walked tentatively forwards. "So… what happens now?"

In response, a little cow appeared out of nowhere.

Ayol smiled and fed the cows more, two at a time, until they had all kissed. "Kissing makes babies. It only works within the same species, though."

He blinked. "_Kissing?_" A memory attempted to surface, but failed miserably in the end.

Ayol nodded. "Kissing. I don't know how it works… but—" She cut off abruptly.

He glanced at her expression, then waved his hand in front of her face. "Hello…? Hello? Confusing girl? Are you in there?"

Ayol seemed to snap out of it. "We're the same species."

He frowned. "What?"

She kissed him.

The kiss lasted a few seconds until he pulled away. "What was… why did…" He blushed deeply, not sure how to handle it.

Ayol looked around, confused. "Where's our baby? Huh. We didn't get one. Is there something more to it? Maybe we should try again."

He shook his head. "No. No more kissing. First off, I don't want a kid. I'm not even… grown up yet, if I really am the same age as you. And second, what would we do with a baby? I don't know how to take care of a baby!" _That was… completely… I just… thinking no worky._

Ayol shrugged. "Well, it didn't work. So on to the second part of getting steak: the _**slaughtering**_." With a sort of maniacal laughter that he had previously only heard from _skeletons_, Ayol pulled an iron sword out of its sheath and opened the fence gate, closing it as she walked into the pen.

He stood up straight, his confused emotions about to take another beating. _Those poor cows._

Ayol showed absolutely no mercy and killed four of the adult cows at random. Each time she sliced into one, it tried to run away, but the sheep and the pigs made it so it couldn't escape very far. When the massacre was over, she had five steaks and three pieces of leather. "Okay, so I got a little more than usual. That's alright."

He stared, horrorstruck at this _person_ who could kill the baby cow's parents right in front of them, and then talk about how they got more meat off of one than usual. "That was… horrible."

Ayol looked up. "You do what you need to in order to survive, silly boy. I don't have the patience to farm, so I do this instead."

He gulped. "Next time you have to come here for food, I'm staying in the tree. It's been nothing but bad with you."

Ayol seemed to think about it. "I'm not _that _bad of a kisser, am I?"

He gave up, walking back to the tree in silence.

* * *

Makateon entered Yamataq's room. The elder blaze looked up from the strange sphere he was working with. _What news?_

_Our creator is here on the surface. She's somewhere here… Her presence is felt. But we do not know exactly where she is. _

_So… nothing has changed._

_Well… we've eliminated places she isn't._

_And what of the Endermen?  
_

Makateon hesitated. _Our… cousins… we haven't seen any of them yet. But to be sure, it has not been long since we arrived here. So perhaps they simply aren't around here. Or perhaps they don't know that we're here. It's been so long since we communicated with them last. Any number of things could be the reason we're not finding them.__ Alamary has an interesting theory that the Endermen do not like the light of the big fiery object in the sky. If that is so, I hope it goes away and it becomes dark again. Then maybe our cousins will come back to the surface._

* * *

He eyed the strange red powder. "So… what does redstone do exactly?"

Ayol frowned. "Redstone is one of the few substances I don't know what to do with. I know that it makes good compasses and clocks… but I don't know what else it does."

He pinched a little bit of the powder; it stuck together as if magnetized. "Maybe… it's like… magnets?"

Ayol cocked her head to the side. "Really?"

He nodded slowly. "If that's so, I should be able to use electricity. We could maybe have electric lights and… music. Maybe."

Ayol shrugged. "Whatever. I'm not interested in figuring it out. I have other questions to ask."

He turned to her. "Like what?"

"Like, what would happen if you mixed all three powders, gunpowder, glowstone, and redstone, together, and set the mix on fire?"

He thought about it. "Probably fireworks."

"Sweet!"

* * *

_Yamataq. I believe we have found out something._

_And what is that, Aldrajl?_

_Water HURTS!_

…_Idiots._

* * *

It was night again and storming. Lightning struck almost every five seconds. Ayol was shivering constantly. "So… cold…"

He frowned, then went to a treasure chest and pulled out wool. He went to the crafting table and filled every square with it. When the crafting process was complete, he was left with a blanket. He took it and pulled it around the girl's shoulders. "I think you were in that place _way_ to long if cold affects you _this_ much."

She nodded and pulled the cloth tight. "I used to… like watching the rain. It was one of the most peaceful and calming things. Now it's too… cold to enjoy properly. I should just go to bed."

He watched her climb the stairs. _Note to self: being cold makes her more serious._

She yelled, interrupting his note to self. "Hey silly boy! Get up here and make the bed warmer!"

He sighed, wishing he had made that bigger bed.


	8. Chapter 8: The Hunt

Chapter 8: The Hunt

He woke up to once again find that the bed was empty. "Ayol?"

She responded quickly. "Down here!"

He got out and walked down the stairs. Ayol was in front of the crafting table with several pieces of wool. "Ayol, what are you doing?"

She grunted and pointed at the gridded cube. "Trying to make a jacket. It's not working. See? I keep arranging it in patterns, and all I get are stuff like this." She flung a piece of cloth into his face.

He grabbed it and examined it. It was a pair of panties. "Uh…"

She frowned and looked bewildered. "I don't even know what I would use that for."

He dropped it as quickly as he could. "That's girls' underwear. What do you mean you don't know what you would use it for?"

She shrugged. "I don't even know what it is, and I don't know what it's supposed to do. Where would I wear that? I can't think of anywhere I would."

His face flushed slightly. "I'm not going to bother explaining." _That would be much too embarrassing to explain. Especially to someone like her._ "Anyways, if you wanted a jacket, why don't you rearrange the wool into a pattern like what the breastplate's is? That would work, right?"

Ayol froze, then slowly turned to look at him. "That might actually work. Uh… thanks, silly boy."

* * *

Makateon slowly lowered into Yamataq's quarters. _The pattern of light and dark has passed once… _

Yamataq nodded. _What news?_

Makateon's eye twitched. _There is life here… of various kinds we knew not. Some are intelligent… sort of. There are strange white and black things that say "moo." Pink things, small white things… etcetera. The really interesting ones are the ones that arrive when it's dark. There are zombies… human zombies, similar in life to that girl we had… Human skeletons… they're rather smart and live all over… although they're still… not very bright. Giant eight-legged monsters. Four-legged green creatures that… exploded, Yamataq._

Yamataq paused. _Exploded?_

Makateon explained, _We got close to them and a certain glint got into their eyes. They came quietly closer before violently exploding, leaving holes in the ground._

Yamataq blinked several times. _The surface world is frightening… what kind of creator creates something that dies in order to try and kill an enemy?_ _Ah, well. What of our cousins?_

Makateon shook his head. _No sign of them. _

Yamataq paced back and forth. _We'll keep looking. We will find them._

* * *

They were sitting quietly on the floor, eating breakfast when Ayol spoke. "Do you want to go hunting with me later?"

He blinked. "What? Hunting…? Why would we need to hunt? We've got plenty of food."

Ayol smiled. "Not that kind of hunting. The kind that happens at night."

He shook his head. "No. Not happening."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Actually, I shouldn't have asked. I should've just told. You're going hunting with me."

He paused. "Ayol… you're a big-shot zombie killer or whatever… and bane of skeletons or something like that… but I'm nowhere near close to being as skilled as you."

She held her hands close together. "Aww… thanks. You're still coming."

He shivered slightly, remembering the monsters in detail. "Skeletons, zombies, creepers, spiders… Ayol, they're downright frightening, and unless I suddenly get as strong as you, I'm _not going._"

Ayol shrugged. "That's the point of coming with, silly boy! You gotta get stronger somehow, and this is how you do it! By going out and killing things! How do you think I got to this point? How do you think I know all about them? I used to be like you, you know."

He thought desperately, trying to come up with an excuse. "What about the cold? You can't handle the cold."

In response, she held up her new jacket. He looked at it, glancing it up and down, then face-palmed. _…Stupid…! I just…! Why'd you help her? That was stupid!_

She set it down. "The monsters aren't as bad as you think. I sometimes pretend like each has their own personality!"

He looked up. "What? What do you mean?"

Ayol frowned, tilting her head to the side. "Well, skeletons are gruff, mean, bullies. Creepers are a bit shy. They just want to make friends! And…"

He stopped her. "So… this isn't something real. This is just something you pretend. And you do this probably because none of them scare you."

Ayol sighed. "It was very boring around here before you came along. There's only so much you can do. I had to do _something_ to keep myself occupied. And I sure wasn't going to keep making houses everywhere."

* * *

Hours later, the event he was not looking forwards to in the slightest had arrived. Ayol had zipped up tight and made another sword, shovel, pickaxe, and axe for him. "Now, try to remember the tools required for each kind of block."

He shook his head. "How about you make some armor for me?"

Ayol laughed. "Are you really that eager to go down into the deep, dark mines?"

He just stared. "What do mines have to do with armor?"

She turned away to grab her maps. "Do you think this armor is free? It takes eight iron ingots to make each one!"

He looked into a chest. "You have eighty-eight iron ingots in here."

She held up her hands in an exasperated manner. "What can I say? I'm frugal."

He pulled out eight ingots and started to move them over to the crafting table. "Well, I'm going to make myself some armor."

She shook her head and grabbed an ingot he put on the table, placing it back in the chest. "No, you're not."

He placed another on. "Yes, I am. I'm not as good as you. I think I need some protection."

She pulled that one off as well. "I didn't have armor when _I_ first started, so neither are you."

He frowned deeply. "Yeah, well you're some sort of super slayer. I'm not ever going to be that good. So why don't you just… _give me that!_" He grabbed the ingot she just pulled off the crafting table, annoyed.

Ayol tugged back hard. "Hey! Quit it, you!"

He pulled again, accidentally ramming his elbow against the heavy chest. Surprised, he gave into Ayol's strength and found himself being pulled forwards with the ingot. Not expecting that, she tripped backwards and pulled him with, causing him to end up on top of her in a sprawled heap.

Grunting in pain, he looked up. "You okay?"

She nodded carefully. "How about we not fight anymore?"

He nodded as well, getting off of her. "Yeah, I think so too. Okay, give me one good reason I shouldn't make armor for this, and I won't." _She definitely won't be able to think of anything._

Ayol gave him a sly glance. "Because if you do, I'll make you in charge of getting meat next time."

He gulped. "Right. Gotcha. So, where are we going to hunt?"

Ayol smiled. "How about just at this edge, where the forest meets the jungle?"

* * *

Makateon slowly lowered to the elder blaze's cave. _Yamataq. Our cousins! We have found them! They wish to meet you!_

Yamataq's insane smile got wider. _Of course. Let's set off._

* * *

Ayol hummed a positive little tune as she stabbed through the center of a spider. "And another one… ooh, string!"

He was considerably less enthused. "Oh… yay… string."

She nodded and put it in her pockets. "And it's good for…?"

He sighed. "Bows and fishing rods."

She nodded again. "Correct. Now let's find the next monster. I want you to try attacking it this time."

He readied himself. "I really hope it's a zombie we find next… those are really easy."

Ayol shrugged. "That's the thing about monsters. They like to be random. And there's not always only going to be one."

He took another step forwards, and then there was a flash of green as a creeper dropped out of a tree. He quickly swung his sword. "OH NO! YOU'RE EVIL!" The creeper hissed, but the damage was done. It simply couldn't survive or even explode with the gaping chest wound he gave it. It melted, leaving behind a bit of gunpowder.

Ayol just stared. "'Oh no, you're evil?' Really?"

He shook his head. "What do you mean, 'really?' I panicked and said the first thing that popped into my head! And it would've been bad if that thing had exploded, Ayol! It was right in my face!"

She burst out laughing. "You're… so… funny…"

He frowned and huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "That was scary! I could've died! Can you at least _try _to be serious?"

Ayol laughed even harder. "Chest… hurts…"

He just held up his hands. "Fine. Just be that way. I'll just get ready for the-" He stopped talking, hearing a strange noise that he hadn't heard before, a sort of clearing of someone's throat. "Wait. What is that?" He walked forwards.

She gradually stopped giggling, calming herself down, and got up, following him. "Wait, hold up. Just hold on. Where are you…?" She stopped stiffly, hearing the noise he had heard seconds before. "Oh, no."

He squinted, making out a strange black shape in the night. _What is that? Are those glowing things its eyes?_

The creature was tall, dark, and angular. Its eyes glowed a strange lavender, and bizarre motes of light came off of it as it moved. It was also carrying a patch of dirt.

He smiled. _Hey! Could it be another intelligent being? It's obviously not human, but it's carrying dirt. It might even be friendly._ He held up his arm and yelled, "Hey!" He would've yelled more, but Ayol, moving quickly, put her hands in front of his mouth and eyes, closing her own eyes as well.

The pitch-black creature turned to the source of the noise, taking note of the two who were there. The inferior creatures… at least they showed proper respect. And that was enough for it. It turned and walked away, seeming to forget all about them.

He was a little surprised at what Ayol had done, but he didn't question it until after he felt her relax. "Uh… Ayol? What were you doing?"

Ayol was visibly shaken. "We're going home. Right now."

He frowned. "What? But I thought you wanted to teach me stuff. And I've actually learned quite a bit out here, even if I don't know how to kill a bunch of skeletons with nothing but a stone shovel."

Ayol held up a hand. "Do not question me. We're going home _right now._ Hunting's over."

* * *

The Enderman walked up to the group. _I have arrived._

Yamataq's grin grew wildly distorted. _Any trouble in getting here, cousin?_

_No. Not particularly. A couple of inferior beings, but they showed respect._

The elder blaze didn't know what to say about that. _I see that there are… three of you. May I ask your names?_

A peculiar garbled sound came over the mental link. _We of the End do not have such things. If ever your mind soars to our level, you'll find such trappings irrelevant as we do._

Yamataq hesitated. _If you don't mind, may I ask… are there more of you? We've been looking for two diurnal cycles and we have only found the three of you._

The Enderman who spoke for the three paused, then answered. _We of the End do not find the surface to be… pleasing. We do not reside here; we only breach the door to gather for __**her**__. What is it that you want? I suspect that the first meeting in ages is not because you wish to know more about us._

Yamataq nodded. _We are searching for our creator. Is it possible, after having been here for so long, that you have an idea of where she is?_

The strange garbled sound came again. _Your… creator? You're looking for one of the great sisters?_

Yamataq affirmed it. _The Nether was a nice home, but our creator is more important than any pleasant area. And so once we found a door, we began searching immediately. _

The Enderman made a metallic growling noise. _There is a reason that all but one of the sisters were put to sleep, and that the blazes were banished to eternal fire, and that the other monsters were made inferior! Do you not know of this, blaze? And do you also not know that if you wake one sister, YOU WAKE THEM ALL?_

The sheer power of the Enderman's mental shout caused Yamataq's rods and smoke to separate somewhat before he got control and pulled his essence back together. _No, we do not know. We are descendants of the original Nether blazes. They, for whatever reason, did not feel they needed to share that information with the next generation. And so what if we wake all of them? Does it matter?_

The Enderman turned slightly away. _And now you are back on the surface… which means… My apologies for the outburst. I needed to be certain you knew not. To answer you, we are now in the End times. So no, it no longer matters if all the great sisters awake. In fact, it's essential._

Yamataq's smile started to shrink as he pondered the Enderman's strange behavior. Truly, the Endermen had changed quite a bit in the time the two similar races were separated. _I ask you this again, cousin: do you know where our creator is? We must free her. Awaken her._

The Enderman nodded. _She's not far away. Your particular creator made her home in the desert to the South of here. Just be aware: the thoughtless monsters of the surface have their creators asleep as well. And they won't stay thoughtless if their creators wake up. They will ascend, and no power that we know of will make them descend again. Wake one sister, and you wake them all, breaking what is necessary to put them back to sleep._

* * *

Back in the tree, Ayol still looked panicky. He did not see why. "What's the big deal? It's obvious now that whatever that was, it was a monster. Yet even here, you're… twitchy."

Ayol looked up slowly, her expression angry. "Do you realize how close you came to death? How one wrong move almost killed you? I thought you read my book!"

He nodded. "Yeah, but I didn't read all of it. What do you mean I came close to death? What was that thing?"

Ayol tried to calm herself, but the scare was too much. "That was an Enderman! It's really the only monster…" She didn't finish the sentence.

He did it for her. "The only monster that scares you?"

Ayol nodded and stepped closer. "With good reason! They're easily the most dangerous monsters there are!"

He gave her an odd face. "Dangerous? It didn't even attack."

Ayol looked around nervously. "If an Enderman sees you looking at it, it will attack. That's why I covered your eyes. You came _so close_…" A tear ran down her face.

He wasn't sure what to do with her, so he decided it wouldn't hurt to hold her. "There, there. Hey, it didn't happen. I'm still alive. And still learning. It wasn't that bad of a mistake, was it?"

She looked into his eyes, seeming annoyed. "You dummy. You're sleeping on the floor tonight."

He blinked. "Okay…?"

She went upstairs, took off her jacket, and got into bed. He grabbed the jacket and turned it into a pillow, lying on the hard floor.

He was about to fall asleep when Ayol sat up and looked over the side of the bed. "On second thought, get up here. It's still cold, whether I'm mad at you or not."


	9. Chapter 9: Awakening

Chapter 9: Awakening

He woke, stretching… and he realized that Ayol was still sleeping in the bed. Since when did she do that? She usually was up around half-past early. _She must be tuckered out from the excitement last night._

He quickly figured out that his arm was trapped under her. Moving as slowly as possible, he started to pull it out from under… and Ayol stirred.

Since Ayol had been asleep all of… maybe once in his memory (and that was in the Nether), he didn't know exactly what to do. Should he let her sleep? Should he wake her up? What would be the best solution?

_It'll cost me nothing to wait it out, right? It's not like having her awake ever does me any good._

He looked at her calm face. _She's cute… maybe if she would calm down and be just a smidgen more serious, I could relax._

* * *

The eleven blazes flew quickly over the plains South of the swamp. Yamataq shook his head at their pace. Aldrajl, ever the hothead, had frequently made off with his mate Alamary to attack helpless creatures along the way. _Those two… they were troublesome when they were younger… but now they're nearly impossible to handle! Cannot they simply wait to play until we wake our creator?_

* * *

It wasn't until noon that Ayol woke up. He had waited for about two hours.

She blinked and raised her head. "What…?"

He quickly pulled his arm out. "Uh, good morning?"

She sat up slowly. "What time is it?"

He shrugged. "Daytime."

Ayol pulled her feet out of the covers, but didn't do anything else. He frowned. "Something wrong, Ayol?"

Hearing her name, she turned. "I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt about floating islands… and that I could move from each one to the next with such ease…"

He looked up at the sky, seeing only clouds. "Even though something like that would be perfectly normal for this world, I think it was only a dream."

Ayol laughed. "Of course. Alright… what was I going to do today again?"

He decided he didn't really care anymore. "How about you go do your thing and I do mine."

She seemed slightly hurt. "You don't want to work with me?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I don't. You've given me pretty much all the basics, right? Other than enchanting, which I still say is pretty messed up."

"Well, yeah, but…"

He interrupted her. "You're really good at stuff, I get it. But I kinda want to do things on my own, too."

She frowned. "Like what? What are you going to do?"

He hesitated, noting the curiosity and earnestness in her voice. She really wanted to do something with him. He just wanted a day to himself, mostly. _What would I have to work on to lose her attention once in awhile that wouldn't involve going more than twenty blocks from the tree and yet would be useful enough that she wouldn't force me to do something else?_

The answer, of course, was redstone. Ayol never used it, wasn't even interested in it (save compasses and clocks), toying with it wouldn't involve going great distances, and the results from the magnetic substance would probably do great wonders.

So that's what he said. "I'm going to play with redstone."

Ayol's face shifted into one of disbelief. "_That_ worthless stuff? Ha! You'd be lucky to make so much as ketchup from it!"

A memory ran right past him. "What's ketchup?"

Ayol thought about it. "Some kind of red stuff. I don't know. Anyways, redstone is only used in two things."

He held up a finger. "That you know of."

She crossed her arms. "What else could there possibly be?"

He held out his hands. "Ayol, give me a day to experiment. One day. That's all I need. Go off, do your own thing, slaughter more animals or hunt monsters like a crazy person, but just wait until I'm done, okay? Who knows. This could maybe even be the most useful substance in the world."

She looked half like she was going to accept and half like she wanted to pull him along. In the end, curiosity won over whatever instinct it was that made her want to be near him at all times. "Fine. Mess with your stupid red crap. I'm going to go grow a tree in half a second."

* * *

Makateon found it and brought it to the others' attention.

_WARNING… Thieves will be eradicated with extreme prejudice. Anyone know what that means? _The rest of the blazes shook their heads. Makateon peered at the door in the sand. _And does anyone know if there are supposed to be strange wood walls out in this… 'desert?'_

_Who cares? Yamataq says we need to get a move on, so we can't worry about this kind of thing, can we?_ Aldrajl said with an annoyed tone. He had gotten a lecture from the elder blaze… and blaze lectures didn't usually involve as much talk as they did action.

Yamataq noted the giant pillar of sand. _The Enderman told us that it was further from this giant random column of sand. We keep going South._

* * *

Near sundown, Ayol started hiking back to the tree. _I think that was very productive. Food for the next few weeks. Lots of stone stacks. And jungle wood to last at least a month at full production. _

She frowned as she remembered the boy's words. _He wants to work alone with redstone. But I have so much to show him!_ For the longest time on this world, she had only really wanted a friend. Someone to show what she had accomplished.

She had suffered and bled, fighting to eke an existence out of the world, discovering how to use its own rules against it. It had made it all the more worth it when she had succeeded.

But there was largely no point. She had to keep herself busy somehow. So she made a job out of slaying anything and everything she could at night or in the large underground caverns. In the day, she made a journal of all her findings to keep occupied. It was wishful thinking at the time that someday, someone would read it.

She grew proud of her massive prowess, gaining in skill and power, using the weapons she had fought for with all her might. When the skeletons somehow grew more intelligent—Intelligent enough to speak! To organize!—she had panicked, leaving a message in blood in her fortress and fleeing to the north, where she had proceeded to create a house underwater, the only place without monsters.

However, after she calmed down, she realized that she needed a non-fire light source to insure that she could see anything coming. So she went to the Nether for glowstone.

Unfortunately, that was when she met the blazes for the first time. Ghasts and zombie pigmen were quite common and easily dispatched, but the blazes were something new, unpredictable. They captured her. She spent who-knows-how-long down there in Hell.

When the boy had come to save her, she was mostly delirious. She didn't know if she was just imagining things or not, but decided that for the time being, she'd act as if it was real.

Now, only the third day after he rescued her, he wanted to be alone. What? She had been so pleased to have a companion, someone to share accomplishments with and have fun. But he decided that what she had fun with was not fun. _How can messing with worthless red dust be fun?_

She made up her mind to find out. _Alright! Time to see what silly boy's done with the useless junk I find everywhere._

As she approached the tree, she was surprised to see a wood and stone structure sticking up out of the ground near the animal pen. _What's he been doing?_

The structure was large and bulky. Ayol noted the liberal streaks of redstone applied to many surfaces. _What in the Nether is that thing?_

She walked closer, seeing her friend shoveling himself down a pillar of dirt. She realized that it was a way to get further up and walk around without getting in the way of the building's design. She herself had used that to transplant leaves to the bottom of her tree.

He reached the bottom and pointed. "Behold. Stuff."

She nodded. He seemed to be enjoying himself. "So what is this thing?"

He pointed at the wood, stone, and redstone components. "It's an elevator… sort of."

Her mouth fell open. "What? An… ELEVATOR?"

He nodded. "Of course! It took a small amount of time to figure out, but heck if it wasn't worth it! See those sets of multiple redstone torches?"

She nodded, still in shock. He grinned. "Well, the magnetism, when altered with those, creates a small repeating delay every time a current passes through them. That's what lets the various integral components to process the charge one after the other, like how your clock works."

She blinked and stared at her temporal recorder. She had no idea how it worked, just that it did.

He continued, grinned all the while. "And see those blocks, there? Well, it might be easier to show than explain. Just walk inside the shaft and press the button."

Her eyes widened and she beamed. "I get to press a button? That is just plain awesome. Is it a red button?"

He didn't seem to understand what was so awesome about pressing a button. "No, not really. I could _make_ it red if that really makes you happy… I would need some paint, though."

She shook her head and ran for the shaft. "Never mind! I'll just go!" She got in and punched the button. She yelped with surprise as the stone beneath her feet rose up quickly, faster than she could have ever climbed. As the elevator rose the twenty or so blocks it covered, a simple tune played with a crystalline-sounding instrument.

The doors at the top opened quickly. She was treated to a view of her tree slightly above her and the pen down below. It wasn't that high up, but it was still kind of cool. _How in the Nether did he do this with redstone?_

He shouted upwards. "Now hit the button up there to go down again!"

She nodded and pushed it, feeling a rush of excitement as the stone was lowered down. _Now I HAVE to know how this works. Stone isn't affected by gravity! HOW DID HE DO THIS._

The notes played in reverse, but the tune was still pleasant. She stepped out, amazed. "How did you accomplish this with some useless red dust?"

He laughed. "Useless? Ha! I could make anything with this stuff. I've discovered ways to send a charge out onto the pathways similar to your automatic fortress doors and from pulling levers, as well as from tripwires and other things. With this, we could monster-proof everything by creating automated deathtraps."

She pointed at the blocks he had talked about earlier. "Those ones… did they play the music?"

He nodded. "Each one has the capability of creating a sound and reflecting it off of the block underneath it, making a specific note depending on what it was set to. Meaning we not only have different pitches, but different potential instruments, depending on the material you place it on. Using the rule of friction made it so nothing was underneath these ones, so we only got the default noise, which is quite nice."

She smiled. "A… note block? This is all just awesome. What did you say about deathtraps?" She looked eager.

He seemed uncomfortable with her tone. "Uh… that we could set it up so that if a monster crossed a certain point, they'd set off a trap that could fire an arrow at them or something."

She raised her eyebrows. "We can do that?"

He nodded again. "I'd have to figure out how to make it fire arrows, but yeah, we could. Want me to show you how this works?"

She hesitated, eyeing the intricate system. "I'd like to know how this can happen, yeah."

She spent the next few minutes wishing she hadn't asked.

* * *

Yamataq watched as the other ten blazes moved the sand out of the way. It had taken them awhile to find this exact spot and then uncover just a little bit of what was underneath.

A single lever on a smooth sandstone block.

Aldrajl growled. _This is it? This is what we were looking for?_

Yamataq nodded. _Yes. This is what the last elder told me of, and what was passed down from the elder before him. I believe this was created by our ancestors._

Rayonarak, a fairly young female blaze, seemed skeptical. _Our great ancestors, more powerful than we were and infinitely more wise, created a wooden twig in a piece of gray rock?_

Yamataq just gave her a look and pulled the lever. Instantly, the ground began to rise.

The other ten blazes shouted in surprise and backed away as a building rose out of the sand. It was a great pyramid with a decorative face for an opening. Hieroglyphics marked the walls.

Yamataq's grin grew wider. _The Blaze Temple._ He flicked the switch back and the sand that rose with the temple flowed out through holes in the floor. He then flew down to where the others were gathered. He shouted out victoriously in the tongue of humans, "It is time to wake our creator! Blaze! Blaze! Blaze!"

* * *

The eleven descended down to the final level. A twisted, melted statue sat in the center of the small room. The hieroglyphics down here were the most detailed of the temple.

Twelve slabs of sandstone with sandstone stairs on all sides sat in a symmetrical pattern around the statue, three rings of four.

Yamataq turned to the others. _Makateon, my offspring… it is time. Time for you to take my place. Serve our creator well! SERVE HER WELL! _"Blaze! _Blaze!_ BLAZE!"

The ten watched as their leader floated above the statue, then dissolved himself, laughing the entire time.

His twelve blaze rods floated downwards and inserted themselves into the twelve slabs, melting square holes into the stone.

What remained of Yamataq melted into nothingness. But because of this sacrifice, the statue began to revive as a living being.

One of the statue's legs moved forwards. The ground quaked.

* * *

"And then this repeater goes through two ticks, allowing the charge to catch up to the…"

Ayol couldn't be any more bored. The parts of the redstone system worked and could be duplicated. That was all she needed to know. She had initially wanted to know how it worked, but after listening to her friend talk on and on, she had almost snapped. Several times.

Just then an earthquake occurred. It was large and rather violent, shaking stone away from stone, causing the structure to move. Ayol reacted quickly, grabbing him and pulling him out of the way as the stone, probably due to the world's nonsensical physics, suddenly not only obeyed gravity, but momentum as well.

The elevator missed the animal pen by about a block. All of the components changed to their 'dropped' forms.

Several trees' leaves dropped as well. Ayol's own tree managed to survive with minimal damage to the library.

He looked up. "What? How did that happen?"

She crawled off of him, not entirely sure what to think. "That's a first. Earthquakes don't ever happen around here. And gravity doesn't ever work that way; that's why the rule of friction and the rule of connectivity work. And things don't ever change around here! That's why everything's so entertaining!"

He frowned. "Maybe the rules are being rewritten?"

* * *

In various locations, the seven remaining sleeping sisters awoke.

Deep underground, in the void underneath the bedrock, the spiders' creator opened her eyes and roared her fury.

In a jungle temple hidden to the North of Ayol's tree, the zombies' creator slithered out to breath in the air for the first time in centuries.

In the Nether, the ghasts' creator rose from the lava, slamming the netherrack walls nearby into pieces.

In the ocean to the East of the continent, the silverfishes' creator pushed away from the sea floor, heading to the surface.

In the vast tundra to the West, the slimes' creator woke silently and observed her surroundings.

In the high mountains East of the desert, the creepers' creator used her power to burst forth from the largest shell of all, the tallest mountain in the range.

In a temple made of soul sand underneath the lava pool in the Northern plains, the skeletons' creator twitched and screeched, ready to be killing again.

The final sister, already awake, felt each of her siblings wake up, one by one. The nine sisters were ready to plague the world again.

And their mate, father of all monsters, watched and laughed.


	10. Chapter 10: Siege

Chapter 10: Siege

Ribs was not a skeleton to cheer. Nor was it one to do much other than destroy. But the recent earthquake had made it cry out with much joy.

Inside it and all of the others, a dry voice had spoken. It was a voice that all skeletons that day had heard, a sort of echoing, ancient voice.

It had given them something they never had: hope.

It had told them of the riches that would be bestown upon their race, of the wonders that they would all be shown.

Their creator had spoken.

To think of your race as superior was one thing, but to have it undeniably confirmed… that was beyond what they had imagined.

Ribs had taken charge immediately afterwards. The voice had given them knowledge and power. These were things to be used against their most powerful enemy.

It was finally time to confront the humans.

* * *

Ayol grinned. "You haven't had _really_ good food until you have had hot cooked chicken."

It was night, only hours after the collapse of the elevator. A single chicken had perished from the fall of a far-flung redstone repeater. It was the same chicken that Ayol was now cooking.

He smiled. After the earthquake, things had become quite hectic as he gathered the fallen blocks, but now he could actually relax after a hard day's work.

Ayol seemed satisfied for some unexplained reason. The tree was mostly unharmed. There was a nice meal of chicken cooking in the furnace. It was a warm night with a small breeze. There was a large-shafted spear sticking out of the wood next to him… WHAT?

He stumbled to his feet, wary. Where had THAT thing come from?

Ayol had already somehow managed to get all of her armor on. She growled. "I was just starting to feel good, too. Whoever threw that had better have had a good reason to."

He twitched. "There's a good reason to throw large spears?"

Ayol ignored him and went upstairs, peering out of a hole where a window pane used to be. "What in the blasted Nether is _that?_"

A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He climbed the stairs in an almost resigned manner. His jaw dropped as he tried to comprehend. _What the heck is… oh crap._

Ayol's mouth fell open as well. "..." Words could not even begin to describe her shock.

It was an army. Skeletons with bows stood in neat columns and rows. Large ballistae stood side by side, loaded with the same kind of spear that had crashed through her window. Catapults loaded with flaming blocks of netherrack canvassed the back. Oddly large, strangely blackened skeletons holding stone swords peppered the crowd. A group of skeletons riding spiders stood on the flanks of the archers. Many were wearing armor or carrying glowing weapons.

Ayol swore. He had to agree with her. He swore as well, and she hit him. "Don't swear. It's not polite." He was too busy staring at the army to care.

A single black skeleton walked up to the tree, wearing full steel armor and holding a gilded bow. It shouted, "Hello, _pincushions!_"

His mouth, having closed, fell open again. "Holy crap! It's that one guy! He… changed!"

Ayol blinked. "Uh, hi?"

Ribs nodded. "Ayol, you have been accused of crimes against the New Skeleton Empire. They are as follows: Being a hereditary enemy of our race. Killing gatherers of life-force. Destroying our great and magnificent visionary leader, the one whose face bore scars from you, with a shovel. Grinding up our bones into a powder for the sole purpose of enhancing inedible flora. Attacking without provocation. Stealing much-needed resources. And being a member of far inferior race."

Ayol could not take her eyes off of it. "What… the… Hell."

Ribs continued. "As these crimes have all been proven to a sufficient degree to the rest of us, we now pronounce sentencing upon you. We have sentenced you to be killed and reborn as one of us, to better enhance our race. And your little friend is to be ground up into a powder for the sole purpose of enhancing inedible flora."

Ayol looked at him, and he looked back at her. He managed to get a word out. "I thought… they were really dumb, even if they could talk… and this house was supposed to be completely safe. Only jockeys could climb it, or something."

She shook her head. "Any creature with arms could climb that ladder, but I just whack them back down. Those spider-riders? Those are jockeys. And they can climb up anywhere. They've only attacked in small numbers before, though… what changed?"

He shivered. "Maybe you… I don't know… killed their leader?"

Ayol face-palmed. "Killing their leader wasn't a miracle. It would take one to civilize them this much."

Ribs shouted again. "Do you have any last words for us?"

Ayol shouted back, "Be quiet! I'm trying to think of how to kill you!"

Ribs nodded. "Very well. May your femurs break in disgrace." It turned and walked back to the army.

The boy was slightly confused about Ribs' last sentence. "May your femurs… what?"

Ayol shushed him. "I need to think."

He rolled his eyes. "What, are you going to break out the shovel again?"

Ayol shushed him again. "I told you, be quiet!"

The army started advancing, and he ran to one of the large chests, opening it and withdrawing iron ingots. He brought them to the crafting table and made armor out of them. Ayol didn't object.

She turned to a different chest and pulled out Gashface's bow. She chuckled slightly, drawing strange looks from her him. "First time I get to use this, and I'm holding back an army. Help out however you can, okay?"

Ayol started picking off targets, but the ballistae and catapults all fired at once. All of a sudden, the tree was on fire and giant bolts were sticking out of everything… ironically making the tree look like a pincushion.

His mind raced. _Not good at archery. Shot own foot the first time I tried… so what do I do…? What do I do?_

Ayol shot another black skeleton in the face, smiling as the flame enchantment set it on fire. Another arrow appeared in her hand, the infinity enchantment working its wonders. The glow of crafting shined light on the wood in front of her, but she couldn't spare time to see what her boy was doing.

The jockeys started to climb the tree, using other nearby trees to gain as much ground as possible. She dodged three hastily shot arrows and returned by shooting the mounts, knocking them to the ground far below.

All of a sudden, arrows started flying from behind her at the army at a speed even _she_ couldn't match. Turning, she saw a hastily constructed stone-and-redstone circuit. "What is that thing?" She had to yell; a crashing block of netherrack nearly drowned her out.

He shouted back, "Automated trap!"

It was a simple self-firing dispenser. Placed at the height it was, it could fire arrows very far. "I'm going to connect more in other directions! Don't get in front of the stream of arrows!"

Ayol didn't know how the thing worked; she couldn't bring herself to care, either. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it! There's at least a couple hundred of them!"

A skeleton's head popped through the hole that served as an entrance to the tree. He responded by clobbering it with the closest weapon on hand: a hoe. "Seriously, got any more swords?"

"Chest! Chest! They're in my chest!"

* * *

From many blocks away, the zombies' creator watched the fight. She was slightly enthralled by the fire, but it was not enough to distract her from her ravening hunger. Her many mouths moaned at the thought of all of that life, just waiting to be devoured. So hungry… HUNGRY!

She rushed forwards, swallowing any small creature unlucky enough to get in her way.

* * *

The arrows were no longer effective. The skeletons had pulled out large, extended shields. When they marched in formation, using the shields as a wall and ceiling, the legion sustained no casualties from his automated weapons.

Ayol swore again. "Hey boy, you got any armor-piercing weapons?"

He blinked. "Have I got what? Why would I have any?"

She picked off a couple more jockeys, setting fire to nearby trees as well. "You're the redstone genius! If anyone could pull off a miracle, it'd be you!"

He was speechless for a moment. Ayol, the girl who took on seven skeletons with only a stone shovel while almost _giggling_, thought _he_ could pull off a miracle?

The look he was giving her must've been incredulous, because she turned away and muttered, "Of course not. I was only imagining that the brave little engineer could save me from the bad, bad monsters."

He looked at the chests, then out of the tree. The skeletons had just reached the bottom and the jockeys had almost reached the top. "Anything to get out of here? We can't save this tree, Ayol!"

Her eyes were pained. Her first home, abandoned? She could hear the truth in his words, but still didn't like it. "Ender pearls."

He frowned. "What?"

"Ender pearls. If a person throws them, and they break, the person will be teleported to where they broke. I have some in the 'spoils of war' chest." She winced as she said the word 'war.'

He nodded. "Good. Come on. Grab everything important to you. We can't come back here."

She was very quick, grabbing nonrenewable supplies and food, taking only the most important things to put in her pockets. He did the same, taking redstone, diamonds, weapons, the enchantment table, and other, similar items. These things couldn't easily be reattained.

All of a sudden, the tree shuddered. A jockey who had successfully made it to the top of the tree fell off, both spider and skeleton growling in irritation.

The two looked at each other and spoke at the same time. "What was that?"

Peering over the side, an odd scene presented itself.

A wall of moldy flesh, constantly shifting in shape and size, had attacked the skeleton army. It had many mouths… but the mouths also shifted and morphed, disappearing and reappearing almost randomly. It was a chaotic mess that was about half the size of the army. And it was growing from each death.

Fire did nothing to it. There was no way to injure it, as it would just shift away from projectiles and blades. The only apparent harmful change was caused by it swallowing the tall, blackened skeletons. When it did that, its skin took on an unhealthy gray tinge. However, even this was not enough to stop this monster.

Immediately following the thing was an incredibly large horde of zombies. Some wore armor and carried weapons. Many were thinner than average and had large noses. There were also a proportionally small amount of miniature zombies that ran quickly ahead of the swarm.

He shook his head. "Skeletons… versus… zombies?"

Ayol gasped. "It's climbing! It's absorbing the tree!"

The flesh was now largely ignoring the fleeing undead and concentrating on the living. It swallowed and shifted its way upward.

He grabbed Ayol's hand and chucked a pearl towards the South with all of his might.

Moments later, the zombies' creator slithered to the top, only to find it empty of all life.

She ate the tree anyways.

* * *

The two stopped at the break of dawn, panting in the middle of the desert.

He stopped to observe his companion. She was bleeding and burned in various spots and looked exhausted. "Ayol, you're hurt…"

She smiled painfully. "This one's from a ballistae bolt that brushed past. This one's from an arrow that I had to pull out. This one's from a burning block of leaves… and so on."

He examined his own body, finding it to be in slightly better shape. He had mostly stayed out of the way of projectiles, although a skeleton climbing up had seen fit to give his hip a shallow injury. "How do I treat your pain? Do we even _have_ any bandages?"

Ayol shook her head. "We treat it by talking about something else. I have some questions. First, how did the skeletons figure out how to build and organize? Second, how did brain-dead _zombies_ learn it? Third, what in the Nether was that big… blankety… mouthy thingy? Fourth, why haven't we seen any monsters, despite travelling in darkness for most of the night?"

He couldn't concentrate on what she was saying. He grabbed her left hand, the hand he hadn't grabbed when they fled. She exclaimed very loudly and hit him in the face with her right hand. "Don't touch that!"

He recoiled quickly. Her left hand… was missing its pinky finger. "I'm… sorry."

Breathing quickly, she slowly counted to fifteen in her head. "I am too. I shouldn't be hard on you. You're just trying to help me."

He pulled out some wool, a bit of string, and the crafting table from her tree, trying to put the ingredients in order to make some sort of makeshift bandage. The string ended up fused to the outside of some compact wool. _Good enough._

He tied it on her hand. She grimaced. "Keep going while talking to me, okay?"

He nodded, turning back to the crafting table. "The skeletons have rapidly been getting smarter, according to you."

She sighed. "They certainly couldn't talk just a little while ago. But whatever happened recently sped up the process by five hundred percent."

He continued. "And zombies all looked the same. But now there are different kinds."

"Right again. Before yesterday, there was no difference between one to the next. Stupid ghouls."

He tied a bandage on her arm. "That _thing_… seemed to almost be _leading_ the zombies. Again, impossible with their level of intelligence."

"Yes. I already know that."

"And the monsters that wander at night didn't wander tonight."

"Is there a point here?"

He twitched as he examined the burns down one of her legs. "There was also an earthquake hours ago, which, as you said, 'doesn't ever happen around here.'"

Ayol frowned. "That's right. You think they're connected?"

He tried to chuckle, but simply couldn't. "I'd be surprised if they weren't. Okay, I'm finished. You won't bleed to death… I think."

She smiled gratefully. "Help me up…" He lifted her to her feet and she stretched, cringing at each needle of pain. "Next base to go to… the desert house. Hidden, out of the way, and monsters don't go through doors."

_They might now…_ He walked along, keeping a concerned eye on Ayol.

* * *

The father of all monsters smirked at the watching wall. _So interesting. So fascinating. So fascinatingly interesting._

A mute servant approached, baring a cup of sickeningly pink substance. "Many thanks. Give yourself a pat on the back." _The skeletons. Who knew they had it in them? But of course, my beloved mouther fungus scared them away. She was always so… hungry._

He took a drink, smiling at the sweet substance that had taken years to perfect. "Perfect mixture. Much better than the last batch. I believe I've found my new head mixer."

The servant frowned. The head mixer's job was the most important. As such, the father killed all who did the job in an incompetent manner. It didn't matter how many he killed… he could always make more.

The father peered through the wall at the two humans. _Yes, these two are so remarkable. So appealing. So appealingly remarkable. _

Despite his wish to keep looking at them, he changed the wall's focus to be on those who had awakened his many mates. _Blazes. Who would've thunk? They've been in Hell for who-knows-how long._ "I wish to test your skill with the brewery, head mixer. This next mix isn't as important as the cup you just gave me, but I will still have high expectations. Make some of the dark blue stuff. If you succeed, you will get a raise. If you fail, you will not get a raise."

The servant left quickly and quietly. _Hm… is this servant perfect? Is he attuned with my wishes? Attuned perfectly with my wishes? Quick and quiet is the way to go… quietly quick._

The wall's focus changed again, this time to an aerial view of the desert. _The two groups are close to each other… I wonder how those two will take on my dear tigress?_


End file.
